Pope Francis Calls for ‘God’s Mercy’ at Start of Yearlong Jubilee

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Tuesday ushered in a yearlong celebration dedicated to the theme of mercy, intoning the ceremonial versicle, “Open unto me the gates of justice” before pushing open the bronze doors in St. Peter’s Basilica that are kept bricked up until the start of a Jubilee, or Holy Year.

The pope paused on the threshold of the basilica for a long moment to pray, then became the first of an estimated 10 million Roman Catholics who are expected to pass through the Holy Door — a symbol of the threshold to salvation — in the coming months.

Francis was followed by a frail-looking pope emeritus, Benedict XVI, who made a rare public appearance to participate in a religious ritual that dates back more than 700 years.

He was followed by cardinals, bishops, dignitaries and some of the 70,000 people who reached St. Peter’s Square on a chilly and wet morning after passing through the airport-style security checks that have been instituted for what Rome’s police chief described as a “Jubilee in the time of ISIS,” as the Islamic State is known.

Streets leading to the Vatican were closed to traffic and hundreds of law enforcement officers patrolled the surrounding streets, as well as tourist attractions in central Rome.

“To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them,” the pope said in the homily during the Mass that preceded the opening ceremony. “This will be a year in which we grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy.”

For the first time, too, the Jubilee is focused not only on Rome but also on local places of worship, in keeping with the pope’s instruction that bishops open Holy Doors in cathedrals around the world so that the faithful can participate in the celebrations without traveling to Vatican City.

The ceremony on Tuesday formally opened celebrations of the Jubilee, which ends on Nov. 20, 2016, but the pope had already opened another Holy Door during his trip to Africa last month, proclaiming Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, “the spiritual capital of the world.”

Nearly 40 countries selected pilgrimage cathedrals or sites with Holy Doors, including a tent in a camp in Erbil, in northern Iraq, home to thousands of displaced Iraqi Christians, according to the Vatican newspaper, the Osservatore Romano.

The Vatican has established a Jubilee of Mercy website that lists cathedrals whose Holy Doors will open on Sunday.

Francis timed the beginning of the Jubilee to coincide with the feast day of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, as well as the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, the three-year gathering of bishops that brought the church into the modern era. That encounter “impelled the church to emerge from the shoals which, for years, had kept her self-enclosed so as to set out once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey,” the pope said in his homily on Tuesday, reinforcing the mission he has set for his papacy. “The Jubilee challenges us to this openness,” he added.

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Praying in front of the Holy Door after Pope Francis opened it on Tuesday. An estimated 10 million pilgrims are expected to pass through it in the coming months.CreditMax Rossi/Reuters

“Pope Francis is living the Holy Year of Mercy as an urgency for the church at the beginning of the millennium,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said at a book event last week.

He described the celebration as a sign that the “church is living fully and deeply in its own time.” Mercy, he added, is a balm against the “hatred, violence, fanaticism” that spread “like poison” among people.

In the document proclaiming the Jubilee in April, the pope expressed a “burning desire” that Christians reflect on the corporal and spiritual acts of mercy, acts that Roman Catholics are expected to carry out.

The pope touched on these themes in his Angelus address, calling the faithful to be witnesses of Christ’s love, especially to those most in need.

In what was effectively an appeal to Christians to alter their lives, he cited the Gospel of Matthew: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

For some, concerns about security after the terrorist attacks in Paris last month may have dampened enthusiasm about traveling to Rome for the Jubilee, and the Italian news media reported that hotel reservations were markedly down.

But still, many came.

“To see the church gather in celebration is not an opportunity to give up,” said Greg Iwinski, a comedy writer from Los Angeles who was among those in St. Peter’s Square. The pope’s message of mercy, he said, was crucial in a world of political squabbling, spreading global war and “the vindictiveness found on social media.”

Mercy, he said, “cuts through all that.”

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A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: Francis Opens a Holy Door and a Year of Mercy . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe